Custom tables (channels) - like my yahoo sorta

berserker

I have a form for users to pick channels from.

And the channels they pick should show up here.

http://toshhatch.com/networld/my_index.php

I have this php code above the first <html> tag on my_index.php

<?php

$chanels = "";
foreach($_POST as $key => $value) {
if($value == "on") {
if($chanels == "") {
$chanels .= $key;
} else {
$chanels .= ", ".$key;
}
}
}

setcookie("channels","$chanels","100000","/",".toshhatch.com",0);

?>

Here are the channels
http://toshhatch.com/networld/channels.php

I have all together 38 channels in a seperate folder. Each file named after the channel. Ex. weather.php has the weather code.

And I need these saved to a cookie as well. The options that they picked to last for say .... 45 days.

I also want the channels to show up in a table 3 columns wide, once the 3rd cell has been filled, start a new row, etc.

Any ideas? Or on how to do this a similiar way?

Actually another idea I just had is to have all the channels show up, and they remove which ones they don't like.

Any help is would be great! My job is riding on this as well. :queasy:

trex005

wow... lost job over a lousey piece of code! Anywho there are many ways to do this (as usual) however my method of choice would be to use MySQL if you have it available. I would create a table that serializes the channels. (gives each one it's own unique id) then I would set one cookie with a CSV
eg

setcookie("channels",implode(',',$chanels_array),time()+60*60*24*45,"/");

then simply explode that cookie to get your list

$chanels_array = explode(",",$channels);

as for the 3 columns try something like this :

$row_repeat = 1;
$how_many_colums = 3;
echo "<TABLE>";
while($this_channel = array_pop($chanels_array))
{
     if($row_repeat == 1)
     {
          echo "<TR>";
     }
     echo "<TD>Whatever you want to put in here</TD>";
     if($row_repeat == $how_many_colums)
     {
          echo "</TR>";
          $row_repeat = 1;
     }
     else
     {
          $row_repeat++;
     }
}
if($row_repeat != 1)
{
     echo "</TR>";
}
echo "</TABLE>";

berserker

Thanks! 🙂 I'll give it a try when I get in the office on Monday 🙂

berserker

I get this error

Warning: implode(): Bad arguments. in /home/tosh/www/toshhatch.com/networld/my_index.php on line 17

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/tosh/www/toshhatch.com/networld/my_index.php:17) in /home/tosh/www/toshhatch.com/networld/my_index.php on line 17

This is line 17

setcookie("channels",implode(',',$chanels_array),time()+606024*45,"/",".toshhatch.com",0);

Update - I moved this line above line 17. Now it doesn't give me an error.

$chanels_array = explode(",",$channels);

I would create a table that serializes the channels.

Sorry I'm not sure what you mean 😕

I also want to have a include() statement
For example for one channel is this

include 'channels/kids.php'; to fill in the table cells

Also, just so you know. I've been trying to make this work for at least a week ... 8 hours a day. 🙁 I've asked several different people about this, and still no solution. :bemused:

trex005

okay.... I was writing and not really explaining my thought process.
you have your comma seperated values... I was thinking it would be a bit ezer to work with it internally as an array

then when putting it in the cookie you use the implode (because it is an array and not a string... this produces the comma seperated value string you were storing... then notice the arguments I was using... we were effectivly deleting the cookie using
setcookie("channels","$chanels","100000","/",".toshhatch.com",0);
because this sets the cookie to expite in the past whereas if you use
time()+606024*45 in place of the 1000000, then you will have it expire 45 days from your servers time. then to turn the cookie information into an array again, you can use explode... but of course this may all be preference and is answering more than you asked.

As for the 3 row issue, You got that part right?

berserker

I'm sorry I don't. 🙁 I played around with the code and got it to output something 6 times ( 3 columns by 2 rows ), but the same text in each one. LOL, but that didn't have anything to do with what was in the cookie itself :bemused:

How do I get each cell to populate a different channel? (Each channel is actually a small table). I haven't done something like this before.

trex005

okay... replace the "Whatever you want to put in here" with your channel information. You could even embed a table there.
you have your channel ID ($this_channel)
and this is where I reccomended having the serilized table (meaning a table that has a unique ID for each channel... that has all of the other needed information for the channel.
In Summary : replace "Whatever you want to put in here" with your program that displays the information on that specific channel

berserker

I still don't understand 😕 I feel like a total dumbass :bemused:

I don't have a program that displays the information on that specific channel.

If I replace the "Whatever you want to put in here" with your channel information. Wouldn't that just repeat over and over?

I don't think I have the cookie saving any of the selections on the previous page.

This is what's in the cookie, I actually selected several options on the page prior.

channels
implode%28%22%2C%22%2C+%24chanels_array%29
toshhatch.com/
1536
3050867840
29672085
1099361232
29663033
*

http://www.toshhatch.com/networld/index.php

And thanks soo much for helping me 😃

trex005

the following line every time it is called takes the next item in the array....
while($this_channel = array_pop($chanels_array))
there are many ways to do this... including the simplest foreach:

foreach($channels_array as $this_channel)

(though not Very efficiant) and the most common, the for loop

for($i=0;$i<sizeof($chanels_array);$i++)
{
     echo $chanels_array[$i] , " ";
}

but where I have that echo is where you would write a program based on $this_channel
$this_channel will be set to the next item in the array every time it loops until there are no longer any items in the array.

berserker

while($this_channel = array_pop($chanels_array))

is fine the way it is. But you could use the foreach??

Where the echo statement for the <td> cell is. I have no idea how to write a program to loop threw the array. 😕 I'm sorry I'm being such a pain in the butt 🙁

trex005

My program loops through the array... all you have to do is take the ID you are fed and turn it into your output

berserker

lol, 🙁 How?

trex005

okay... try running this... just so you can see what it is doing... I'm thinking maybe you are not quite getting the basic idea

$row_repeat = 1;
$how_many_colums = 3;
echo "<TABLE>";
while($this_channel = array_pop($chanels_array))
{
     if($row_repeat == 1)
     {
          echo "<TR>";
     }
     echo "<TD>The ID for this channel is '$this_channel'</TD>";
     if($row_repeat == $how_many_colums)
     {
          echo "</TR>";
          $row_repeat = 1;
     }
     else
     {
          $row_repeat++;
     }
}
if($row_repeat != 1)
{
     echo "</TR>";
}
echo "</TABLE>";

berserker

I get nothing 🙁

Here is the code for the first page - index.php

berserker

And here is the my_index.php - where the code is mostly.

Ignore the commented out code :rolleyes:

Try it out http://www.toshhatch.com/networld/index.php

I don't think the cookie part of it is working

trex005

okay.... removing it from your project... let me show you how this code works...

<?
//lets pretend the following line is read from a cookie
$chanels_array = array(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12);
$row_repeat = 1; // do not change... for internal tracking
$how_many_colums = 3; // how many colums you want
echo "<TABLE Border=1>";
while($this_channel = array_pop($chanels_array))  //removes the end item from the array and assignes it to $this_channel
{
     if($row_repeat == 1) // Decides how to write table code
     {					   

          echo "<TR>";
     }
     echo "<TD>The ID here is '$this_channel'</TD>"; // Always echos (you can use $this_channel to know what to put here) this is where your section of the code goes
     if($row_repeat == $how_many_colums) // Decides how to write table code
     {
          echo "</TR>";
          $row_repeat = 1;
     }
     else
     {
          $row_repeat++;
     }
}
if($row_repeat != 1)
{
     echo "</TR>"; // Decides how to write table code
}
echo "</TABLE>"; // Closes the table
?>

you can see this in action at
http://www.newcovsoft.com/phpbuilder_guy.php

berserker

Ok I got that to work 😃 ..... What I was thinking to use to fill the table cells is a: include "channels/kids.php"; type of thing .... if that would even work :rolleyes:

Here is the code for the kids.php file. All together there are 38 different php channel files.

      <!-- ------------- Kids Channel ------------- -->


<table width="165" border="0">
  <tr>
    <td background="../images/channel_mini.gif">

<strong><font color="#000000">Kids!</font></strong>


</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>

<a href="http://www.networld.com/redir.cfm?re=www.pbskids.org" target="_blank">PBS Kids Online</a>

</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td> <a href="http://www.networld.com/redir.cfm?re=kids.msn.com/kids" target="_blank">MSN 
      Kids</a></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td> <a href="http://www.networld.com/redir.cfm?re=www.nickjr.com" target="_blank">Nick 
      Jr Online</a></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td> <a href="http://www.networld.com/redir.cfm?re=cartoonorbit.cartoonnetwork.com/servlet/Home" target="_blank">Cartoon 
      Orbit</a> </td>
  </tr>
</table>

		<!-- ------------- End Kids Channel ------------- -->

Getting closer I think 🙂 Thanks for the quick responses 🆒

I'm done in the office for today, I'll be on-line tomorrow at 8 a.m. Utah time.

trex005

I will actually be on the road today thus, probably not available until tomarrow if you have any more questions.
Utah time eh? I was origionally from Utah... A Salt Lake boy I was!

berserker

A huge step forward ......... for me. 🙂

I changed a few things, I got the names of the checkboxes on the previous page (index.php). To show up in the table cells. Now I need the actual tables to show up instead.

What about using a string type of thing.

echo "<TD>";
echo include "channels/", $this_channel, ".php";
echo "</TD>";

I include the updated code 🙂

trex005

back in the office for the next 15 min.. what's the progress?